Because of Winn-Dixie

I was reading “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo. It’s the story of a preacher’s daughter – India Opal Buloni – who comes by a stray dog in the new town they move into, calls him Winn-Dixie and takes him home.

Opal begins to clean in a pet shop to save enough money to buy a leather collar and leash for Winn-Dixie. But she comes to know that the store manager had been to jail. Then she becomes friendly with an old lady, Gloria Dump and tells her about the store manager. Opal needs to know if she should be afraid of him.

To answer her, Gloria takes her to a big, old tree in her overgrown backyard. Hanging on the tree were bottles. “There were whiskey bottles and beer bottles and wine bottles all tied on with string, and some of them were clanking against each other and making a spooky kind of noise.”

Opal asks Gloria why all those bottles were on the tree. Gloria tells her they were to keep the ghosts away – “The ghosts of all the things I done wrong.”

That touched a chord and I am writing this post.

All the things I did wrong clank like I tied them up a tree

Sometimes they are strong like there’s a strong wind

Sometimes it’s just a bit of noise in the background

But they are never totally gone.

Some are things I couldn’t get for myself

I was supposed to reach a point

But life’s a twister and I didn’t reach that point

I set these ghosts to rest. They aren’t worth a bottle on the tree.

Some are times of shame and embarrassment

When I didn’t follow the rules

Of our culture and times

I set these ghosts to rest. They aren’t worth a bottle on the tree.

Some are things I did that hurt somebody

It doesn’t matter that I didn’t mean to hurt

That I was just being myself

They still hurt another.

The things that hurt others clank the hardest

I would tie them up a big old tree any day

So that the smallest wind clanks them hard

And I can’t hear a thing but them.

Hurting others. That’s the only ghosts I’d tie a bottle up in the tree for.

But sometimes, there’s no choice

But to do the thing, the right thing

Knowing there’s going to be

A bottle up the tree tomorrow.